5 posts categorized "Urgent care centers"

June 16, 2009

Confusion about how urgent care centers price their services continues.

Alexian Brothers Health Network is the latest health care organization to clarify its policies after a reader contacted me with a complaint.

Tracy Rogers, chief operating officer, told me that earlier this year the organization's four immediate care centers started sending a single bill to patients. Previously, the facilities and their doctors billed patients separately.

The reader who reached out to me had gone to an Alexian facility in Palatine in January before the new policy went into effect. He was irate when he received two bills totalling $415 after spending 10 minutes with a doctor who diagnosed a sinus infection.

"This is four times the amount I would have paid my own doctor for similar services," the reader noted in a letter to Alexian. "I can understand a small 'convenience' fee on weekends or off hours, but the amount billed was totally beyond what I expected. Had I know the cost when I walked in, I would have walked out, went back home, and called my own doctor for advice/medications, even though it was a Sunday."

May 31, 2009

Readers continue to contact me about negative experiences they've had with urgent care centers. Most complaints focus on the surprisingly high cost of care at some facilities.

As I've said several times over the last several weeks, it's important to find out what medical services cost at your local urgent care center. Otherwise, you might find yourself taken aback.

That was what happened to Michelle L. Pritchard of Richton Park, whose sought care earlier this year at a center run by Ingalls Health System. I include her email to me below:

In January of this year, my 4-year-old son and I became ill at the same time with the primary symptoms being a hacking cough that never relented. After about a week of sleepless nights for both of us and over the counter medications not helping either one of us and no end in sight for the symptoms, I then decided to go to an Urgent Care facility in my area.

I am a single mother of two young children and am working on a salary just barely over $30,000 a year. I have health insurance through my employer but it isn't wonderful. I opted to visit the Urgent Care in my area because according to my insurance company the co-pay was the same amount of money as a regular doctors visit. Plus, I didn't have to take time off work for two separate appointments, one to a pediatrician and one for my physician, both with only daytime office hours.

May 27, 2009

Last December, a man in the south suburbs took his son to an urgent care center in Flossmoor. It was a Sunday and the 18-year-old was complaining of a severe sore throat.

This man, who didn’t want me to disclose his name, was under the impression that urgent care centers were convenient, affordable alternatives to hospital emergency rooms.

But he was mistaken about the affordability, in this case.

First, this consumer got a $219 bill from the Flossmoor center, which is owned by Ingalls Health System in Harvey. That seemed pretty reasonable. Then, he got another $15 bill for a strep test. Again, it seemed fine.

But that wasn’t the last of it. In short order, this man received a $694 bill from Ingalls Memorial Hospital for "emergency room treatment" and another $214 bill for "medical emergency lab." In other words, the hospital charged him $908 above and beyond the $234 in charges from the urgent care center.

Add it all up and that’s $1,142 for a medical visit that ended with a doctor’s recommendation that the boy go home, rest and take Tylenol. (He didn’t have a strep throat.) This family will be paying most of the charge out of pocket because their health insurance plan has a high deductible.

May 18, 2009

Marie Rutke was annoyed after reading my article about urgent care centers last week. In the story, I said that urgent care centers are often seen as a convenient and affordable alternative to the emergency room.

That wasn’t her experience, Rutke complained.

On a Saturday in mid-March, after cutting her finger with a knife, Rutke drove to nearby Sherman Family HealthCare, an Elgin immediate care center owned and operated by Sherman Hospital. A doctor gave her three stitches.

When the bill came, the amount initially seemed reasonable. The medical center charged her $383.40, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois paid $228.10. Rutke was left with a bill of $155.30.

But when a second bill arrived from Greater Elgin Emergency Specialists, Rutke blew a fuse. The doctor’s group that had attended to her at the immediate care center charged an additional $545.

“That’s a totally outrageous charge for three little stitches,” Rutke fumed when I spoke to her on the phone. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is prepared to pay $345; that leaves her with another out-of-pocket charge of $200.

May 13, 2009

When his 2 ½ -year-old daughter tripped at day care and cut her chin recently, Lance Moore didn't take her to the emergency room at the nearest hospital. Instead he rushed her to an urgent-care center.

"I wanted her to get immediate attention," said Moore, who'd been to the St. Charles center before and knew the doctor who gave his daughter five stitches. "He offered to call a plastic surgeon, although he said he didn't think that was necessary," said Moore, who lives in Carol Stream. "He did a real nice job."

Urgent-care centers have been gaining ground in Illinois and across the country recently as an attractive medical option for time-pressed families trying to avoid spending hours in a hospital ER or days waiting for a doctor's appointment.

Sometimes known as "docs in a box," the centers offer walk-in medical services and extended hours to customers with sore throats, ear infections, sprained or fractured limbs, simple wounds and other non-life-threatening medical problems. Doctors provide the care, assisted by nurses, and generally X-ray and laboratory services are available. Most centers are open 365 days a year, and insurance policies cover most services.

This convenience-oriented format, started more than 20 years ago, is getting a boost as hospitals and private firms build new centers, responding in part to new competition from retail clinics in Walgreens, CVS and Wal-Mart stores.

About this blog

Getting the medical care you need isn't easy. Resources can be hard to find. Weighing the costs and benefits of proposed interventions can be difficult. Choosing a doctor or a hospital, negotiating with your insurer, staying on top of treatment trends, getting the best care possible -- all these can be nerve-wracking. This blog will bring you useful information, connect you with important resources and highlight the stories of other people like you.